


Hate that I love you

by YunaDragneel



Series: Klance week 2k16 [2]
Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Klanceweek2k16, Love/Hate prompt, M/M, mentions of gore
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-08-06
Updated: 2016-08-06
Packaged: 2018-07-29 19:01:09
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,349
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7695715
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/YunaDragneel/pseuds/YunaDragneel
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Keith almost died, Lance realized. And he knew he had to hate him.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Hate that I love you

Lance realized that Keith almost died on the last mission. It hit him like a brick to the face when he stared at Keith's pale face in the med pod. The blue paladin placed his hand over the screen, various medical statistics on the glass, but he couldn't care. All he knew was that he hated Keith's guts. And he'd literally seen them.

“You idiot,” Lance whispered leaning his head against the glass, “You should've let me take the hit.” He closed his eyes. “I hate you so much.” And with that he tore away from the pod, left the infirmary to stay in his room.

 

Keith felt disoriented when he emerged from the pod, fell right into Hunk’s arms, who steadied him.

“Careful, Keith.” His voice was warm, felt good to hear. The red paladin opened his eyes, his gaze searching the room. There was Shiro, looking so relieved to see him. Pidge seemed to relax, the tension in his shoulders loosening. Hunk was steadying him, talking to him in a hushed voice. Allura began to look worried, Keith didn't know why. Coran was there too, looking at Shiro with a puzzled expression. The absence of a certain blue paladin was what made Keith painfully aware of how hard breathing was. Why did it hurt so much when he breathed in?

“Keith. Keith, buddy.” Shiro appeared in his vision. “Calm down, try to breathe with me.” The leader looked at him with this calming expression, which helped Keith a bit.

“Lance is fine, Keith. He's in his room.” Hunk pet Keith's head, and apparently it had the desired effect of Keith calming down. It was magical how easy it was for Hunk to calm someone down. “After you've eaten something, you can go see him.” The yellow paladin smiled, gently dragging Keith with him. Confused Keith tried to walk on his own but found he didn't have the strength to. So let Hunk drag him along until he seated him in the dining area. Shiro, Allura and Coran had tagged along, Pidge had went off somewhere. Shiro sat down beside Keith, smiling at him. Keith wasn't sure why he was smiling but he honestly didn't care.

Hunk came back with some food and placed it in front of Keith, who dove straight into eating it all up. The time he spent in the med pod had made him very hungry. He realized he left out a very important question.

“What happened to me?” Shiro's expression went tense, averting his eyes.

“Well-”

“You almost bit the dust, mullet-boy.” Keith turned around to see Lance in the doorway, Pidge behind him. “Your insides weren't inside anymore and your lion got badly damaged. You had the devil's luck.” He couldn't place it but Keith felt something was off. The tone of Lance's voice was wrong. He seemed cold. “If you would excuse me, I have something else to do.” Lance turned around, pushing Pidge aside.

“Lance! Get back here!” Shiro called after him, but Lance didn't turn around.

“Why are you acting like this?” Keith asked, his voice almost tentative. Lance stopped.

“Can’t you figure it out?” He looked over his shoulder and glared. “I hate you.” And he left, everyone staring after the blue paladin. 

“Lance!!!” Shiro yelled, anger in his voice whilst Keith sat there, frozen. Something in his mind told him that this wasn't based on the childish rivalry they had. No. This time it was genuine. And it made his lung constrict painfully. Lance couldn't mean it.

“Keith! Hey, Keith,” Hunk put his hand on his shoulder, making Keith focus on him. “It’s okay. I will talk to Lance. I’m sure he didn't mean it.” Keith steadied his breathing, finally able to think straight.

“No,” He croaked out, “I’ll talk to him.”

 

It's been a week or so later and Keith had yet to talk to Lance. The blue paladin would avoid him, trying to cross Keith's path as little as possible. Of course he couldn't avoid him all the time but he did a very good job of evading the argument that had to come eventually. Keith finally had enough of Lance dodging him. 

After following him around for a few hours he cornered the blue paladin in an empty hallway, catching his wrists and pushing him up against the wall so Lance had no way out as Keith caged him.

“What the heck man?!” Lance growled when he saw Keith. “Is assault your new way of making me hate you?”

“There's no other way to talk to you,” Keith responded looking at Lance, “You avoid me all the time, so I had no other choice but to corner you.” The blue paladin glared, eyeing Keith angrily.

“There is nothing to talk abou-”

“There is. You're avoiding me. And I don't understand why. Tell me, Lance.”

“I hate you. I told you that a dozen times, don't you ever listen?” Lance spat the words at him, Keith flinching slightly at the venom in his voice.

“I thought we were getting along. You changed suddenly. Why?” Something cold reared its ugly head inside Lance as he let out a biting laugh.

“Because you should've let me take the hit.” Before Keith could say anything, Lance continued. “I'm the weakest member of the team. I'm a lot less valuable than you. It wouldn't have mattered if I died because then we wouldn't have lost a good pilot or good fighter.”

“That's not-”

“It’s true Keith. There is so much difference in skill, I have no talents. You are the talented one. Not me. I'm average at best. If you hadn't flunked the Garrison, I wouldn't even be here in space.” He didn't dare to look at Keith. “I hate you.”

“You don't hate me. You hate yourself.” Keith realized, tightening his grip on Lance's wrists. “Lance you're not worthless-”

“Then why do I feel this way? Tell me. Why do I always get Shiro telling me to try harder? Hunk is the best engineer I’ve met. Pidge is so good with computers and he is intelligent. Shiro is a born leader, he is one of the best pilots and the best close combat fighter on our team.” He swallowed the lump in his throat. “I'm nothing.” Lance couldn't even wipe away the tears that spilled from his eyes. He tried to muffle the sob that threatened to make its way up his throat, but he had to let it out. Keith leaned in, pressing his lips to Lance's. The blue paladin's eyes widened, but he didn't try to pull away. The kiss only lasted for a few seconds before Keith pulled away, staying close enough to Lance so he could feel his breath on his lips.

“You are everything to me, Lance.” He paused, looking at Lance. “So don't tell me you're nothing, because I would damn space to hell if it meant keeping you safe.” Keith kissed away the tears on Lance's cheeks, slowly letting go of Lance's wrists. His hands fell limply to his side. Keith moved away, braced himself for Lance to bolt but the blue paladin did nothing of that sort. He stood there and stared at Keith, before he tumbled towards him, his arms wrapping themselves around Keith's middle, his face buried in his shoulder. Keith wasn't prepared for this, froze for a second then wrapped his arms around Lance.

“I want to hate you, Keith. But I can't, no matter how hard I try.” Keith nodded. “I hate that I love you. I don't want anything to happen to you. And yet you went and almost died. I saw your insides, Keith. They were supposed to be  _ inside _ , Keith.” He leaned back to look at Keith, sheer terror in his eyes. “They weren't supposed to be  _ outside _ . I thought you wouldn't make it.” Keith tightened his grip on Lance.

“But I did. And I'm here now.” He paused. “I love you, Lance.”

“I'm trying to hate you here.” Lance laughed miserably. “But yeah. I love you too, mullet-boy.” And they kissed again.

**Author's Note:**

> I am so late for the day two prompt but I'll try to get the day three prompt going here as well.


End file.
